The first officially approved DCR opened in Berne, Switzerland, in 1986 but today there are over ninety in Europe (in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Norway, Luxemburg Sydney Australia, and, more recently, Denmark, France, and Vancouver, Canada. These sites have been established for a range of reasons, with differing rationales reflecting local and national drug-related concerns and priorities. Issues such as  drug overdose, prevalence of blood borne viruses (HIV, Hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV)) and the overall health and welfare of people who use/inject drugs and the communities they live and use drugs in.  

The few videos below look at why it is so important for all of us in cities and towns, to have DCR provision and look at their growing and impressive evidence base. Scaling up DCR provision in countries across Europe is an important activism point for our community as is getting involved in the development of DCRs across Europe  From preventing the closure of a DCR (like in Greece) or getting a new one open (like in Paris), or providing new insights into DCRs, the meaningful engagement of people who use drugs in both DCR development and policy, is not just important work in our community but the issue itself is at the top of important and lifesaving issues for people who use drugs.

For the community of people who use drugs, stigma and discrimination are regularly the number one issue on the list in terms of the biggest issue facing drug users today. The stigma of 'addiction' is in itself a subject laden with labels and judgements and one that many drug users reject because of it. The stigmatising labels of 'junky' etc see all people who use drugs as conforming to a certain stereotype (thieving, dangerous, lying) and often applies this label for the lifetime of the person.

In doing so, such stigmatisation actively discriminates against PWUDs and further impedes the 'recovery' that society claims it wants to promote. However, for people who use drugs, this discrimination goes right to the very heart of the issue around why our community must organise itself.

Find out more about the issue in these interesting videos. 

Prohibition has had a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people, criminalising, marginalising, and discriminating generation after generation. Almost every activity drug user activists are involved with today, is literally trying to rectify the huge damage and fallout from bad drug policies enacted through prohibition. The many deaths from overdose, violence, poverty and isolation, the problem of BBVs and the health issues of drug users, the lives ruined by imprisonment for months, years and decades and the knock on effect of illegal drug use on families and communities...all a result of a system that is propped up by billions of (ill spent) dollars, and politicians who are increasingly defending the indefensible. The justification for criminal prohibition is that the danger from certain drugs is so grave, the only way to protect the public, is to ban them outright.

If a ban could be rendered completely effective, this questionable premise might be tested, however eighty years of history have shown the various methods of suppression to be so ineffective that the global drug market, has actually grown progressively, especially since the end of World War II and "illicit drugs" are now everywhere purer, cheaper and more abundant than ever. The issue of decriminalisation and regulation is not only gaining more ground across the world as the hopeless reality of prohibition is reflected back to every government on earth, but we now see it implemented in various forms by a few brave, forward thinking governments. The videos below look at some of the issues around prohibition, including 10 years on in Portugal after they decided to implement decriminalisation over 10 years ago.

The massive rise in the numbers of people who use drugs filling up the world's prisons is deeply disturbing. The depth and breadth of issues that face drug user activists is enormous and there are some areas that have received less attention in the past. Prison and enforced rehabilitation centres are two of these areas. The American system of private prisons in slowly heading to Europe, as is Super Max Prisons, that mean over 1000 prisoners housed in one prison, which usually means less staff able to manage such numbers, which leads to people being locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day, no staff available to accompany prisoners to medical or hospital appointments or run classes and groups. There does need to be more collaboration between prisoner led groups and organisations and the drug user movement; many of our issues coincide and strength is always in numbers; lets work together to improve European standards and policies in prisons. The rise of enforced detox and rehab globally in countries like Burma, Guatemala, Philippines and others is very disturbing trend.

It is creating a hidden (though often accepted by an ill-informed or ignorant society)  financially motivated and sometimes religiously driven network of locked houses, bootcamps and sheds where drug users are often kidnapped from the street, bundled into cars without knowing where they are going, and locked inside a house that poses as a clinic or rehabilitation centre. Women are locked in rooms with no access to anything or anyone and are vulnerable to being raped or harassed. Many captives are chained to beds, and forced to detox without any medical help and their families either forced or pressured to pay a lot of money for something masquerading as treatment. The massive industry of rehabilitation centres for PWUDs is growing globally and PWUDs are victims of a largely unregulated network that promises much and usually delivers very little, or worse, to people who are at their most vulnerable. An issue that needs a lot more attention and investigation.

While facing severe marginalization and discrimination that has resulted in epidemics of HIV and hepatitis C, millions of people who use illegal drugs remain largely unrepresented when decisions are made about how to respond to health and other concernsEffective democracy ensures people affected by decisions have a voice in how these decisions are reached. This principle is so central to our culture that we often do not question it. So why then do we debate the idea of including drug users in decision-making when neglecting to do so would be alien in most other areas of society?89 Despite popular prejudice to the contrary, people who use drugs have proven, through their active involvement in the response to HIV and HCV, that they can organise themselves and make valuable contributions to their communities. People who use drugs can play a wide range of roles; as contributors, speakers, implementers, experts, and participants in decision-making bodies. They must be involved at all levels, in the issues that affect their lives. Nevertheless, recognition of the life circumstances of many people who use drugs, and because of the stigma and often hostility and suspicion they face, special efforts are and will be necessary to make such involvement possible -and meaningful.